In Passing
by Zapenstap
Summary: A Yuki x Machi fic. In the original FB story, Machi is Treasurer in the Student Council. Is a romance between Yuki and Machi blooming? Canon. IC. Machi's POV. Humor and fluff.


This is a fluffy introspective/comedic piece focusing on Machi Kuragi (Student Council Treasurer) and the possible blooming relationship/romance between her and Yuki. This fic might serve to introduce some of the newer characters to Fruits Basket fans who haven't caught up with the manga. Any spoilers are by reference for the most part; nothing that important.  
  
In Passing  
  
By Zapenstap  
  
Walking back to school after lunch, Machi Kuragi listened with half an ear to the conversation her half brother Kakeru Manabe was holding with himself.  
  
"Like I was telling my mom," her half-brother explained with starry-eyed enthusiasm. "I need discipline. I need someone to tell me when I've gone too far!" He smacked a fist into his hand and the look that came into his eyes made her wonder if he wasn't actually as crazy as he sometimes behaved. "But you see, in order to have discipline, I need to be able to go as far as I can. Mom just doesn't understand that."  
  
Kakeru self-serving logic was neither new nor unexpected, so Machi said nothing in response. Kakeru liked to hear himself talk. He might not even have noticed that she didn't respond, but it was all part of their relationship and not something that bothered either of them. She didn't even really think of it. She was only vaguely aware how hard Kakeru was trying to get closer to her after all the mess between their families that pulled them apart when they were younger, but she didn't always know what to say when he tried to engage her in conversation like this. Especially when the topic was... himself.  
  
As Kakeru launched into a ludicrous example to demonstrate his point, Machi idly noticed the color in the leaves of the trees shading their path from overhead. The sunlight broke through in pieces, dappling the orange autumn leaves on the lower boughs with a lighter, sun-soaked shade of amber and turning the reds into a flaming scarlet. The stillness in the air broke with a sudden breeze that stirred her hair and shook the leaves like tiny bells. Machi looked up. On a day like this, the boughs of the trees seemed to catch fire.  
  
"You should stand up for yourself a little too, Machi," Kakeru said, walking now with his hands behind his head, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "You know, just tell your mom what you want."  
  
She watched a leaf fluttering down from a bough somberly, shifting on the currents of the wind, twirling as it fell. She didn't know how to answer. She didn't know what she wanted. So she said nothing. Kakeru didn't seem to take it amiss.  
  
The leaf hit the sidewalk and she and Kakeru passed by, leaving it behind in a cluster of other leaves that had since turned from red to brown. It saddened her that winter rushed in so quickly on the heels of autumn. After a brief flash of ruddy red glory, every leaf that struggled so hard to thrive during the summer was doomed to fall. Her emotions dropped with the thought, leveling out on that flat plain where nothing seemed to happen. No one stopped to notice such things. After all, there were many leaves, many of them undistinguished, and they would bloom again next year. Why should anyone care about something that was just there?  
  
It was always the same problem with her. She was like that leaf.  
  
Sometimes she felt like she was being suffocated by an air bubble, trapped in a void or a fenced pasture separating her from other people. The feeling in her heart was like the kiss of a ghost. The confusion of not knowing who she was or what she wanted to do with her life made her feel empty and cold and that feeling maddened her. She knew she wanted something. She knew she wanted it during those times when she unwittingly smashed the physical, confining space around her to bits in a fit or rage, physically trying to break free in some bizarre, demented effort at self expression. She couldn't be sure if she enjoyed those moments or not. It was a chaotic, destructive kind of freedom, and it was never at the right time or place. It was humiliating, really, and she couldn't control it, no matter how sorry she was afterward. She wished she knew how to follow Kakeru's advice.  
  
Kakeru had fallen into a brief moment of silence as they entered school grounds just after lunch (Kakeru had elected to go off campus for lunch despite rules against leaving the grounds), but didn't seem to notice if she was aware of it, if he was aware of her at all. As she ignored his vocal outbursts, he tended to ignore her nearly constant state of contemplation. He accepted that Machi was often in her head, or often enough anyway to make her the polar opposite of her brother. Kakeru rarely thought about things before he spoke, or thought deeply much at all. He lived on the edge of things, wherever the fun was, and for that reason he was easy to get along with by just about everybody. She, on the other hand, tended to be left behind by events happening around her, lost in her own thoughts, never sure where she fit in or even where she wanted to because despite all her contemplation, she couldn't easily define herself.  
  
"So, um, what's the Student Council meeting this afternoon about anyway?" Kakeru muttered, scratching his head.  
  
"You forget already?" Machi asked him, happy to talk about something other than their relationship with their parents.  
  
Kakeru grinned and then yawned. "It's the president's job to remember things like that! I'm here to protect the school and make sure it doesn't get boring!"  
  
"It might be better," she said in a tone that could be taken as nothing less than polite, despite the digs in the words, "if you showed some responsibility as well."  
  
He shrugged. "You worry about details too much." He slapped her back so hard she doubled over from the impact. "Relax!"  
  
She straightened with a wince, shooting her half brother a hooded glare he did not seem to notice. She wasn't honestly sure what either of them was doing on the Student Council. She had been elected Treasurer because her grades were impeccable, she was always on time, she was liked by the teaching staff and she never caused trouble. Everyone seemed to think—without knowing her personally at all—that, because she was the best student in her class, she would therefore also be the best choice for the Student Council. Kakeru seemed to have been elected for the opposite reasons. He was fun and wacky and well-liked and never did an ounce of work even when someone tried to force him.  
  
She had been worried that the Student Council would be a failure. Kakeru was over-the-top and she herself was thought to be boring; even her mother thought so. The other members weren't a vast improvement. Nao was a lobbying perfectionist that seemed to become angry whenever things weren't going exactly as he imagined they should go, and Kimi was completely scatter-brained, loud and vivacious and friendly to the point of being obnoxious. Yuki, of course, being the President, tried to get them all to work together, but...  
  
Well, Yuki Sohma was a bit of a mystery. Machi supposed that was part of his mass appeal, at least as far as the rest of the school was concerned. "Prince" Yuki Sohma he was called in the hallways, the title enforced by the smitten, starry-eyed girls who stuttered and fell over themselves whenever he turned that polite, accepting smile on him, and then turned vicious whenever he seemed to pay any more attention to one of them over any other. Girls always talked about how beautiful he was, how athletic and smart and nice and everything else a girl could want, so much so that they had formed the Prince Yuki Fanclub to worship him, a fanclub that seemed to operate under the contract that no one girl could claim him so that they could all share him. Machi would admit that he was beautiful to look at, but despite the attention, she also thought he was rather... weird.  
  
Yuki Sohma had always seemed a tad bit aliened and lonely to her. He wasn't a part of any social circles or clubs; he didn't even really talk to anybody. And he was untidy. She had noticed. His cufflinks were always askew and his hair sometimes disheveled and his tie only looked the way it was supposed to some of the time. Though, maybe Kakeru was right about her habit of paying too much attention to details when it came to that.  
  
How Kakeru of all people had managed to become friends with Yuki quite simply perplexed her. They seemed to have radically different personalities. At first they had not gotten along at all, and then one day they seemed to be best friends. Whether because of his friendship with her half brother or for another reason, Machi had noticed a change in Yuki. He smiled more genuinely these days than Machi remembered from a year or so ago...not that she had known him personally then (not that she knew him personally now!) but there was a difference. Not too long ago he had just been the Prince of the High School. Now he was Student Council President, but it wasn't just an office anymore. He was social about it. He seemed...happy.  
  
She supposed that's why she watched him. If that was true of Yuki, maybe there was also hope for her.  
  
Machi lifted her head a little, realizing she had been looking at the ground between her shoes again while lost in thought, and felt momentarily flustered when she caught sight of Yuki at that moment as he emerged from the school's main office and strode across the school yard with Tohru Honda. How his relationship quite worked with Tohru Honda no one was sure, but they smiled in each other's company and seemed to be close in some way, almost like family. Today, though, it seemed Tohru could not stay. Machi supposed it was her turn to do chores in the classroom or something. She smiled goofily at Yuki as she waved goodbye and almost ran into a pole when she turned to go. Yuki winced, breathed a sigh of relief when she missed, then smiled warmly at her retreating back. Once she was gone, he dipped his head, his uneven locks of hair partially hiding his eyes, and continued on his way.  
  
Yuki's fanclub peeked their heads out from behind buildings and bushes as soon as Tohru was gone (and the threat of her Vibe friend that watched over her). If Yuki was aware of them, he gave no notice of it, striding away from the main office buildings with his chin slightly lowered and his expression unreadable. Contrite. Meek. Almost mousy, Machi thought, but captivating and attractive in a strange way. Machi watched passively and blank-faced as he raised his head and waved to passing classmates who called out to him, smiling welcomingly, every gesture and word the epitome of a gentleman's polite social conduct. Machi had never heard a bad rumor about Yuki, nor seen him do anything less than nice except perhaps where his fiery-tempered cousin Kyo was concerned. It was little wonder why everyone called him the Prince.  
  
"Hey, Yuki!"  
  
Machi winced inwardly at the shout in her ear. Kakeru practically jumped up and down on his toes, waving and smiling with an open-mouthed grin. She stood still, arms at her sides with her book bag in one hand, watching from behind a stiff mask as Yuki turned toward Kakeru's hail. Yuki's face lit up at the sight of them, his smile radiating genuine happiness that made his already beautiful face ten times more beautiful than it had been even a moment before. Machi felt a little sliver of warmth wiggling into her heart and spreading out through all her limbs and subconsciously tried to shrink away from what felt like a spotlight.  
  
When Yuki neared Kakeru to talk without raising his voice, he still smiled, though it was now a calmer, dubbed down version that was more warm and elegant than magnetic as the other had been. Machi lowered her eyes, not with meekness, but with awkwardness, never sure what to say or do in social situations except fade into the background and hope she didn't cause any problems.  
  
"I have an idea, President," Kakeru said loudly—he was always loud—as he brandished his right arm and rolled up his sleeve. "As Vice President of the School Special Defense Force, I submit the suggestion that we all receive tattoos as a badge of our position and honor!"  
  
Yuki's eyes hooded in a telling way, somewhere between amused and reproving. "Probably not."  
  
Kakeru didn't act like he had even heard, grabbing Yuki's arm and turning him slightly so that it seemed it just the two of them talking. Feeling left out and unsure how to include herself, Machi just stood there as Kakeru tried without success to convince Yuki to be his accomplice in a few other wild schemes. Yuki listened politely at first, but with the sort of credulous undertones in his expression Machi often felt (and similarly hid) when listening to Kakeru. As Kakeru began warming up to his climax, Yuki shook his head and then laughed, cutting Kakeru short with a rebuttal and some clever jibes tossed in for flavor, a few of which Kakeru didn't seem to catch. Machi remained the next best thing to catatonic until she heard Yuki speak her name.  
  
"Machi, can you help me convince him?"  
  
She lifted her head and parted her lips, surprised at being invited into what seemed like a private conversation. As she lifted her gaze in order to reply, she was stunned by Yuki's eyes.  
  
"Are you okay?" Yuki asked her. She only looked at him, flailing for something to say. He smiled at her, a small, gentle smile that softened his face as he turned concerned eyes on her. "You're not tired or upset or anything, are you? Were we excluding you?"  
  
She had gone completely mute.  
  
Kakeru scratched his head, looking at her as if she were a puzzle. "Oh, well, you know Machi.... She's not all bounce and glow, I guess."  
  
"I think you mean bounce and go," Yuki said, diverting his attention again, narrowing his eyes critically at Kakeru's slip-up. Machi felt her lungs draw in breath when Yuki's eyes left hers.  
  
"She's kinda shy," Kakeru continued teasingly, and Machi suddenly felt the weight of his hand as he plopped it on her head and messed up her hair with an affectionate rub. "I have an idea, Yuki! Why don't you go out with her for awhile? That's sure to make her popular!"  
  
Machi flushed bright red from her toes to her hairline. The heat in her face felt like it could warm a room. She dropped her chin so no one would see, clenching her fists and swearing to beat Kakeru within an inch of his life as soon as the opportunity presented itself!  
  
"You know how it is," Kakeru continued gaily. "Everyone would see her with you and start talking and asking her questions... and because everyone likes you, they'd want to get to know her." He patted her head. "She's pretty too, you know, if she dressed up a bit or did her hair or something." He laughed loudly, as if it were all a ludicrous joke. "It would be good for her. Eventually she might even crack and let loose her temper on your fanclub. Machi has a temper you know. She keeps it well hidden, but I'll bet those crazy fangirls would declare her the devil if you went out with her. Machi's a perfectionist. If she got a bad enough rep without cause, we might see something explosive. Heh"  
  
Yuki's voice sounded half strangled. "I think you're embarrassing her."  
  
Kakeru didn't seem to hear. "You like Yuki, don't you Machi? You kept that leaf he gave you."  
  
If she was flushed before, she felt like a furnace about to explode now. At the field trip to Kyoto Yuki had given her a red maple leaf because he thought she liked the color. She didn't think he meant anything by it, but for whatever reason she had turned the thing into a bookmark—she just didn't like to see nice things thrown away.  
  
"Machi likes Red?" Kakeru teased with just enough insinuation.  
  
Her temper exploded.  
  
"Kakeru!" She lunged at him and he barely caught her wrists before she clawed his eyes out. She knew must look ridiculous—he held her back so easily—but she couldn't find a different channel for her anger. In her rage, she didn't notice how flushed Yuki looked. She hoped Yuki didn't connect "Red" with his color as Student Council President. This was so stupid! She did not "like" Yuki that way!  
  
"You're such a jerk!" she shouted. "I'm going to kill you!" She stopped struggling as she heard what she had said, sucking in air and then panting to catch her breath. His grip loosened and she pulled her wrists free. Calming down, she bit her lip in shame—her mother would have a fit to see her behave that way!—and tried to find some place safe to rest her eyes.  
  
"It's okay, Machi," Kakeru said in a careless tone that implied he either had no idea why she was so upset or was pretending he didn't. "I was kidding anyway. I don't think Yuki is interested in girls."  
  
"Now I'm going to kill you!" The irritated flash of anger in Yuki's usually gentile tones started Machi out of her shame so that she lifted her head just in time to see Kakeru raise both his hands in defense.  
  
Kakeru laughed shakily. "Hahaha! Okay! Okay! I take it all back. Hahahaha."  
  
Yuki's expression softened and for some reason he turned to smile at her. She found herself mute again.  
  
Kakeru blinked, head swinging between them. His face flushed an angry red. The change from laughter to ire caught Machi off guard as Kakeru turned on Yuki like a charging boar. "You'd better not date my sister!" he threatened.  
  
Yuki blinked at him, seeming startled, and then a little annoyed. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Kakeru's anger took a dive and he dropped his arm, swinging it and grinning wide as if to make them think he hadn't really been angry. What he looked instead was guilty. Machi stared at Yuki, secretly enjoying the expression of aloof condescension on his face that put Kakeru in his place.  
  
Kakeru's hands went back behind his head as he shrugged and smiled, possibly oblivious. "Yeah, well, I should probably go to class." Kakeru looked off into the distance, seeming to contemplate going to class without actually doing it.  
  
"What about you, Machi?" Yuki asked her. "Do you have class?"  
  
"Yes," she said. She felt warm. It felt good to be included, to have someone pay attention to her and banter with her and ask her things. She could almost forgive Kakeru for embarrassing her that way if it meant she could be involved. "I should go also. I..." She realized her classroom was in the same direction as Yuki's and a wild flashflood of spirit surged through her. She shouted into his pretty, expectant face without thinking. "I can go by myself!"  
  
Yuki blinked again, taken aback, but then smiled to himself. "All right. Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then. Take care." He turned his smile on her and passed by on her left shoulder.  
  
Her heart thumped hard in her chest, her cheeks flushing with humiliation and fervor and a chaotic mix of other things she couldn't separate. She was used to feeling cool all the time, if not cold, even detached, that it took her a moment to adjust. He had really riled her up.  
  
Machi stood where she was as Yuki walked away, head lowered and eyes on the ground between her toes. As Yuki passed her, still smiling cordially, she found it difficult to look him in the eye.  
  
Weird. He's so weird.  
  
Was it mystery? Loneliness? That friendly openness that was somehow closed and safeguarded? Once he had passed she managed to lift her head and look behind her at his retreating figure.  
  
She felt weird.  
  
"Do you really like Yuki?" Kakeru asked her suddenly.  
  
She blinked. She had forgotten he was there. "Huh? No!"  
  
"Oh, okay." He gave her a sidelong look as he walked off.  
  
She stood in place for awhile, alone, wondering what had just happened. It took her a moment to realize the Prince Yuki Sohma Fanclub members hadn't all followed Yuki. Some were still there, looking at her now.  
  
"I don't...like him," she mumbled. "He's just a boy." She felt her skin crawling, realizing no one could hear her and wondering why she was even thinking about him at all. She had been thinking about him all morning, and yesterday too, come to think of it, and the day before that. Yuki was Student Council President; that was all. He was friends with her half- brother. He was just passing by.  
  
"Hey, Machi?"  
  
She turned at the sound of Yuki's voice, coming back again from the way he had left, and felt her heart speed up.  
  
"I hope you weren't...offended, by what Manabe said?"  
  
She looked up and met his eyes. "I... No. I'm not offended."  
  
He smiled. "Good. It's nice to see you show some emotion, Machi. I'll see you after school for the meeting?"  
  
She couldn't control her response. She smiled back. "Okay."  
  
The End. (Or To Be Continued? Mwa hahaha)  
  
Okay! That's just to kick this pairing off. Anybody else out there interested in a YukixMachi relationship? If so, I'm building a website and will welcome submissions. It's not much and I'm building it nearly from scratch using HTML code but I'm making an effort! Visit at Submit to   
  
Please take the time to review this story if you like this couple (or the story, haha). The interest is small, so every reader counts. Thanks! 


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